Microsoft News! No Software Assurance? Must-Dos after Feature Pack Installation and Hey, Turn Bluetooth Off When You’re Not Using it!

In this series we will examine the Microsoft news that’s making headlines around the internet and offer our thoughts and opinions!

My Choice Software Releases the Software Licensing CALculator™

This story is about a new tool that has been released into the market by My Choice Software. The tool is used to look at users, devices, server specs and virtualization information to determine the optimal license configuration for Windows Server.

We really like the nifty name of the product CALculator, a play on Microsoft Client Access Licenses (CAL for short) licensing models.

The vendor claims that the tools saves time by identifying license compliance gaps, optimizing licensing spend on future purchases and saving headaches when it comes to Microsoft Software Asset Management (SAM) audits.

The current product is free but only targets Windows Servers. Other products are being released shortly and will have a fee associated with them.

Method 180 has not tested this tool and are not familiar with My Choice Software who are a Value-Added Reseller based in California and who targets medium sized businesses. The concept is good, but we caution people to make sure the tool is built for your size. Our soon to launch Windows and SQL Server calculator took a long time to test and develop so we know how complex this type of development effort can be.

Microsoft recently released Feature Pack 2 for SharePoint 2016 via the Public Update Channel. There are several new features that have been added, but one of the key feature updates from a licensing perspective is OneDrive for Business modern experience. This feature is available to Software Assurance Customers only.

The License Trap for this is that this feature is installed by default even if you do not have Active Software Assurance. The feature can be turned off after installation.

Method 180 cautions customers to review all Feature Pack Updates for License Traps such as this one. Your technical staff may inadvertently make you non-compliant by installing a feature that requires licenses that you do not own. We are seeing Microsoft and their auditors validate these things via their Software Asset Management (SAM) audits. We recommend you be proactive and validate if you have turned this feature on and have the appropriate licenses.

Not so much a Microsoft news article but an important one for technical teams to be aware of. This article talks about the importance of turning off Bluetooth when you are not using it, due to vulnerabilities.

This week the security firm Armis announced a Bluetooth vulnerability called BlueBorne, which allows any Bluetooth device affected to be attacked through several vulnerabilities. This impacts, Windows, Android, Linux and iOS.

As security itself has improved, attackers are looking to ancillary features such as Bluetooth to find ways in. There are so many devices that can be impacted by Blueborne such as internet of things devices like smart TVs, speakers or even Smart Lightbulbs.

The best defence is to make sure you apply all patches when you can. Or of course you can just shut Bluetooth off when you aren’t using it.